Page 146 of One More Christmas at the Castle
Sabine
‘It’s been such a lovely Christmas Eve,’ Nancy said, as we reached our landing and paused outside my door. ‘But it’s so late, I won’t come in, if you promise me you’ll take one of your pills and get straight into bed.’
‘I’m not stoical enough to do anything else tonight but obey,’ I said, smiling at her.
‘There’s no need for stoicism – and you’ll enjoy tomorrow all the more for a good night’s sleep.’
‘I know – but there’s been something puzzling me all day and I want to talk to you about it. Do come in, before any of the others come up!’
‘Just for a minute, then,’ she agreed, closing the door behind her. ‘What’s troubling you?’
‘Well, the way my earrings vanished from one jar and reappeared in another, like some kind of conjuring trick! I mean, my illness has not affected either my memory or my mental faculties and I’m perfectly certain that last night, I put those earrings in the right-hand jar on the mantelpiece. Yet this morning, in waltzes that granddaughter of Timothy’s and immediately finds them in the other one – which I’d justwatched Xan sift through.’ I looked at her questioningly. ‘You don’t think …?’
‘I don’t think you’ve lost your marbles and, happily, you haven’t lost your earrings either,’ she said, smiling. ‘I think you should just put the whole incident out of your mind and concentrate on what a wonderful day we’ll have tomorrow.’
I eyed her narrowly, with the suspicion that she knew more than she was saying, but she returned my gaze blandly and then gave me one of her sudden, warm hugs and kissed my cheek.
‘I was so proud of you earlier today, Sabine, for taking the first step of reconciliation towards Dido. You’ll find the rest of the path easier from now on.’
‘It couldn’t be harder,’ I said, but later, as I got into bed, I thought perhaps she had something, for I had an odd feeling of lightness, as if I’d let go of some of the heavy burden of bitterness and hate.
40
Bachelor’s Button
Henry and I were both up and busy extremely early. But first, before we did anything else, we unwrapped our presents from under the tree.
There was a big box of chocolate mints from Simon, addressed to both of us, which while uninspired was a nice thought. Henry loved the little oil painting I’d brought him back from California, and his gift to me was a big, bright pink pen with a feathery flamingo fixed to the top on a spring, so it wobbled.
‘Tell me you’re not giving one of these to Mrs Powys?’ I begged.
‘I bought the whole box, so I had enough to give one to absolutelyeveryonein the house,’ he said, smiling seraphically.
I almost missed the tiny package from Xan, which contained the loveliest pair of gold earrings with tiny dangly spaniels, just like Plum, which I put in straight away.
We cleared up the discarded wrappings and then Henry said, ‘Right, let’s brace ourselves for a busy day and get on with it!’
Xan must also have been up long before dawn, for he appeared in the kitchen only a few minutes after Henry had gone to lay the fires and tidy the sitting room.
‘Happy Christmas, darling!’ he said, kissing me, and I thanked him for his present.
‘They’re beautiful. I love them!’
‘Just a token gesture – I’d really like to give you a ring, but we’ll have to wait till after Christmas for that,’ he said, sliding an arm around me and kissing me again. ‘Preferably when I don’t have to share your attention with a turkey the size of an ostrich! What are you doing with it?’
‘Nothing at the moment, it’s just resting. It needs to go in the oven by half past nine at the latest, though.’
‘Resting?’ he queried, then said, looking puzzled. ‘No, never mind!’
Plum had been remarkably patient up till this point, but now vociferously demanded his breakfast.
Once he’d nosedived into it, I said apologetically to Xan, ‘My present to you is only that copy of my latest book. It’s under the tree in the Great Hall.’
‘So is a copy of one of mine, for you – we can open them later.’
‘There’s a present for Plum there, too, which I hope he’ll like,’ I said.
‘Is it edible?’
